Open AccessCésure et sublime
Author(s) -
Marek Bieńczyk
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
czytanie literatury
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2449-8386
pISSN - 2299-7458
DOI - 10.18778/2299-7458.08.29
Subject(s) - joke , oppression , plot (graphics) , literature , politics , czech , sublime , communism , poetry , philosophy , art , history , linguistics , political science , law , mathematics , statistics
Having written The Joke, Kundera changed the modus vivendi of the novel’s narrator who, with time, became a separate protagonist. This is connected with the appearance of the ellipsis as the main plot device, which is not yet present in The Joke. This change in the way of narrating represents another and, perhaps, a deeper dividing line in Kundera’s writing than switching to another language (from Czech to French), the change of the setting (from Czechoslovakia to Western countries) and the change of the political system (from communist to ‘imagological’) as an instrument of oppression.